Travel Adventures: Cassis, France

Hey guys :) 
I really am sorry for the lack of posting on here, I don't have any specific excuse other than that time is just flying by and life has been quite hectic. But I wanted to continue with my travel posts from Europe this summer, if for nothing else than having something to come and look back on every now and then. 

So the second place our cruise stopped was Toulon in the South of France, although we actually didn't spend much time there, as we caught a train to the near-by little beach-side town of Cassis. The town is quaint, pretty and very cute. We wondered around the streets and in and out of the various little shops, picking up some delicious French bread and ice-cream for lunch. The town basically sits on the sea, and so we spent some time on the beach, soaking up the sun and having a dip in the sea, which was actually rather cold considering it's the Med. I really liked that Cassis was much less touristy than some of the bigger cities in Europe in mid-summer, and it never felt too crowded or commercialised. The beach front is packed with beautifully different coloured tall houses all along the shore, and a pretty promenade dotted with lots of shops and restaurants, it felt very authentically French. 

We spent most of our day on a boat, going out to see the calanques, which are narrow, deep-walled inlets of water that have developed in the rock along the coast, and they are filled with calm, crystal clear water and some lovely beaches. We did a boat tour of the various calanques, which was a lot of fun because the water was quite rough and wavy, and so we were bouncing about on the boat, and then when we went into the calanques, which were surrounded by calm, turquoise waters and beach-goers all along the shores. The whole landscape of this rocky coast is absolutely beautiful and really quite awesome- the rocks are huge and tower over you, beautifully dotted with vegetation and cool changes in the rock from a history of water erosion and the works. I would highly recommend you go on one of these tours if you're ever in Cassis or the south of France, we literally just walked up to the port ticket office and asked for the soonest tour leaving, cause I think they are popular and happen quite frequently. 

I had never been to France before, and whilst this was just a little snippet of the culture, I really enjoyed my time in Cassis, and was really taken by this sweet little town. It was quite quiet felt like a lovely place to relax and enjoy the stunning views, delicious food, and authentically french culture this lovely region has to offer. 

Arriving at Toulon...

Calanques

NCL Mediterranean Cruise- Travel Adventures

Hi Everyone,

So this June/July I went on a cruise with NCL along the Mediterranean with my family, and it was honestly the most wonderful and relaxing 2 weeks, which I really wanted to share with any of you fellow travel lovers out there, or anyone wanting to know what the cruise experience was like. I think I'll do what I did on this blog last time I travelled, which was to do a post per country- I try to make the posts a bit of a mixture of a journal type thing for me that I can read back on one day, but also not make it too personal, and give any people travelling there soon some tips of cool things we did or tried. 

Okay so let me start talking about the cruise itself first. We did it with Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) and were on a boat called Norwegian Spirit, and I absolutely loved every second of it! I must be honest, I had never had any aspiration to do a cruise before and it wasn't something I'd thought about, but it is such a cool and fun way to see a ton of places in a pretty short period of time. As you literally just have a day at each city, it kind of just gives you a little snapshot of what the place is like, and gave me an idea of which places I'd love to one day return to one day. I will say that the actual travelling (especially with 6 of us in my family) was quite hectic and activity-packed, and so there was nothing nicer than boarding the ship in the evening and having a swim or dip in the jacuzzi and then sitting on the deck with a drink in hand looking out at the endless sea before having a delicious dinner. There was also stacks to do on the boat- from shows, magicians, the casino and arcade, organised quizzes and gameshows, big boat parties, tons of bars and pubs, etc., you get the picture. Every night they lay out an itinerary of all the things happening on the boat the next day, and there is definitely something for everyone. I cannot even start to explain how much I loved the actual cruise aspect of this trip! Because it's like a once-off payment type thing, there's no fussing about payment once you've boarded, which of course means endless delicious food, snacks, drinks and activities. The main deck has a big pool and lots of jacuzzis with deck chairs everywhere in sight to soak up the European summer sun. There are a lot of lovely places with great views dotted all over the ship ideal for a good drink at sunset and up to 10 different restaurants and cafes to pick from to dine at. The food was pretty excellent and the staff were all so friendly and helpful! My family took full advantage of all the organised games and shows happening, and the various plays and musicals in the theatre were also really cool. 

So our cruise was a 12 day one, which was for me, the perfect amount of time. We also had 2 "sea days" of travelling where we didn't stop off anywhere, which I actually loved as well because it gave you a day to relax a bit and to take full advantage of all the fun things there are to do on the ship. We started in Barcelona and from there went to Toulon, Florence, Rome and Naples. We then had a sea day before heading down to Greece, where we visited Mykonos and Athens. We then went up the Adriatic side of the sea and stopped off at Kotor, Montenegro and Dubrovnik before ending off the cruise in Venice. It was really a wonderful experience and I would highly recommend it to anyone umming and ahh-ing about doing a cruise! 

Travel Adventures: Prague, Czech Republic

Okay so after our week in Croatia, we headed inland to Prague!
Someone once said to me that stepping into Prague is kind of like entering a fairytale land, and that's the only real way I can describe it- it's really like nothing else. The city centre is just a mesh of sky-high beautiful old cathedrals such as St Vitus Cathedral, the huge, beautiful square, lots of little shops and markets and of course the famous Astronomical Clock- which is something quite cool to check out on the hour as it gives you a whole little performance of its own. 

Another thing I really liked about Prague was all the art work among various parts of the city- whether it was the Man Hanging Out sculpture of Sigmund Freud, Babies by David Cerny or just random little bits and pieces and public sculptures dotted around various parks or squares. 

Another thing you definitely couldn't miss whilst in Prague is the Lennon Wall- this was definitely my highlight of the city, especially given my love of the Beatles, it was something quite special to see. Although I am not 100% on the facts, the story goes that it was a source of expression of rebellion for young Czechs in the '80s, and despite numerous attempts of officials repainting it white, the next day it would be covered once again in coloured sketches, quotes and Beatles lyrics. Near by to the wall we found this cute, quaint little place for drinks and dinner called the Lennon Bar, which had absolutely delicious food and possibly the best strawberry lemonade I've ever had (I am a sucker for this anyway). Another thing I loved about this side of the city is that it smells absolutely delicious, from sweet white flowered trees (which I unfortunately don't know the name of) scattered everywhere around here and along the canal. 

Another thing I've heard is worth doing in Prague is walking up the stairs to the castle, which is also across the canal from the old town, on the same side as the Lennon wall, etc. I didn't get round to doing this as we only had 2 days there and it was at least 40 degrees both days, which definitely lessened my enthusiasm to climbing many steep steps, but yeah, it's definitely something I'd like to check out if I go again!

Yeah, overall, Prague is kind of this mystical city that I can't quite believe is real, the old town is literally fairytale-like, the architecture throughout the city is stunning and a really interesting mix of old and modern, the vast bridges are stunning and span out over the canal and I also really enjoyed the 'night life'- we did a really cool pub crawl and ended up in this massive 6 story club along the canal, which was a great lot of fun, so definitely worth doing if you're keen on that sort of thing.

These are so delicious, its like a cinnamon roll filled with nutella!

Photo creds to my friend Amy

Travel Adventures: Dubrovnik, Croatia

Okay, so in the last travel post, I left off with Korcula and Mljet.

So next was Dubrovnik, which is one of the main and most well-known cities along the Dalmation coast of Croatia. We were staying two nights here, opposed to one night as with the others, and so got to know the city a little better. 

Dubrovnik is absolutely stunning! The main touristy sort of area is the Old Town, which just has so much history to it and is all build in stunning white marble. The Old Town is walled off (which was a defence mechanism in the olden days), and so you can climb onto the walls and walk around the whole perimeter about 50 meters up and get a pretty cool view of the surroundings and surrounding sea. The old city has a long main road with lots of touristy little shops on it and some amazing places to get Gelato (which we ate far too much of)! If you walk down to the end of this street (but because it's walled off, it's all just people, like no cars or anything), there is a really beautiful cathedral and lots of museums and places worth checking out if you're into the history of the city. I went on a guided tour of the Old Town, which was so so interesting, and really cool to do, because you get to learn so much about the history. The Old Town has stunning architecture, a mixture of Baroque and Renaissance, and lots of swallows dipping down between all the buildings and narrow alleys. Croatia is a predominantly Catholic country, and so there are also lots of churches and a monkery in the Old Town. Dubrovnik also has a really stunning port on the other side of Old Town, which is worth going to see. We found some really cool places to swim just outside of Old Town (close to the entrance) and there were even a few little like caves/blue grottos, which is super cool! So yeah, Dubrovnik is amazing, there's so much to do, I feel like I could have stayed there for another week at least, but yeah, the nightlife is lots of fun too, and it's just a lovely city with a lot of heart. 

Travel Adventures: Hvar, Croatia

Oh my gosh, I just absolutely and completely loved Hvar and of everywhere I went over the whole trip, this is the first place I would go back to. Hvar is just stunning, it's got the clearest waters I have ever seen in my life and was sunny and cheerful and just a lot of fun! I will say that my good experience here was definitely created by being with great people, having lovely weather and a lot of factors like that that made me just really have such a great time there, but even so, you can't deny the absolute beauty of this little city. It is apparently the country's greatest "party place" and we did have a really great night out there, but in general, its just a place with a lot of young students, travellers and not to mention the very rich and illite. Along the main promenade, if you walk for about 15 minutes along it out of the central town, you become immersed in extravagant hotels and pool side bars and 5-star everything, so it definitely has that aspect to it, which was exciting to fantasise about maybe for one day, but even as students on a budget, we had so much fun there!

One thing you really must do is walk up through the town and then up the hill (not too strenuous of a walk) to the palace. You can then go in and have a look out at the whole town below and the beautiful little islands close by, that kind of look like scattered rain drops. We didn't go into the castle, but still the view was amazing! We ate absolutely delicious pizza there and really enjoyed just wandering around the streets and then as I said, the night life is a lot of fun as well. 

So yeah, overall I just loved Hvar, I can't quite put my finger on it, but there was something really appealing and special to it, and I would absolutely love to go back!

Travel Adventures: Milos, Greece

Okay, so after Santorini, we caught a ferry to Milos, a less touristy, but just as beautiful island relatively close by. Myself and all the friends I was travelling just instantly fell in love with Milos. It's actually hard to explain, because literally from the second we stepped off the ferry, I immediately felt calmed and relaxed and just really happy to be there. The island is relatively big, but not quite like Santorini, and even though it's large, a lot of it is uninhabited, so where we were staying, near the port, seemed to be where most people hang out and live. By the port there is an absolutely beautiful long promenade all along the water front with lots of boats moored all along it. And then there are just loads of restaurants, ice cream shops and quirky little stores along there as well that stay open really late and are always cheerful and festive. 

This was the view of the main road and promenade- how pretty?!

On our first day there, we decided to do an excursion out to some of the other parts of the island. We had so much fun doing this, and I recommend if you do do it, to find out the prices of a bunch of different companies, because they all offer very similar places to go, but some seriously over price, so yeah, just suss out the scene and get a couple of prices before choosing one. Basically, a small ish boat takes you out to sea and then around the islands to a whole bunch of cool beaches that you can't really access by land. It also took us to a stunning place called Kleftiko, which is by far the clearest water I have ever seen, and surrounded by loads of little caves, which you can go through in a separate little speed boat they tow along. We had so much fun on this day out, and it was a really cool way to see a lot of places and sights quickly, as we were only there for two days. 

At the end of the boat excursion, we ended up at a private little restaurant completely isolated and so stunning, right on the water's edge, a pretty cool way to end the day. Not to mention that Grecian food is really delicious, whether you're having seafood or breads and dips, it's all so good!

The place we stayed at was called Lagada Beach Hotel, and it was really a very calm, pretty place to be. It had its own private little beach and so on our last day we spent most of the time just laying in the sun and swimming in the warm waters. 

We all absolutely loved Milos, and at the end of our trip all of us said it was probably the first place we'd go back to again. I can't really explain what it is about it except that it has a charm that makes it such a lovely place to be. I had so much delicious gelato there and the best baklava literally ever, sooo good. Yeah, really a stunning little town to visit!